August 14 - August 17, 1942.
Summary:
Sophie Scholl acts independently of Hans and Alex in their absence. She entrusts Hans Hirzel with 80 Marks ($640) of their money, requesting that he use it to buy a duplicating machine and produce leaflets. She tells him there’s more where that came from, that she will be traveling to Stuttgart and can put her hands on an additional 300-600 Marks ($2400-4800) if he needs it.
Eugen Grimminger is getting to know the Scholl family as he works with Robert Scholl for the temporary handover of his accounting practice. He is unimpressed by Inge Scholl, saying she “concerns herself with high philosophical questions or rather reads books like that.”
The telegram from Willi Graf’s family finally arrives, but it only says, “We are fine.” That disquiets Willi further, as he has no idea what that even means.
The soldier students are still bored, with very little to do. And now it has started raining, with autumn coming early — mid-August! — which means they cannot go for long walks as they like.
One evening, someone procures a bottle (or more) of schnapps and the five friends get totally inebriated. They sing, tell jokes, make speeches. While drunk, Hans Scholl records one of those speeches, thinking it especially insightful.
A senior medical officer holds a lecture on Pfaundler’s Formula for infant nutrition. They see not only the absurdity of such a lecture, only six miles from the front lines. The friends also laugh at the suck-up who politely questions the medical officer on the topic.
Hans Scholl writes a letter to Professor Dr. Kurt Huber, telling him about the month behind them: Warsaw, inactivity, the Russian offensive. He also relates to Huber how they spend time with Russian peasants, singing, drinking schnapps. Hans is trying to learn Russian. He thinks Huber will like this letter, since after all, Huber’s specialty is folk culture. All of the five friends except for Raimund Samüller sign off on the letter to Huber.
Instead of being pleased by the letter, Professor Huber is alarmed. He had believed Hans Scholl was an opponent of Bolshevism. Now he wonders if Hans Scholl has changed his mind.
Why this matters:
Before making this statement, I want to double-underscore: The Scholls were NOT the “leaders” of the White Rose. As you will see in the chapters to come, Elisabeth Scholl’s statement that her siblings were equals among equals, that they were not the group’s “leaders,” makes perfect sense. This was not organized resistance. It was simply a group of friends that could not keep quiet about the atrocities they were aware of.
That said, the role of Sophie Scholl in particular, and the women of the White Rose in general, has been overlooked far too long.
Here in the summer of 1942, with Hans and Alex on the Russian front and Christoph Probst at home with his family, we see Sophie acting independently of the others, giving money to Hans Hirzel to buy a duplicating machine to print leaflets, talking to Eugen Grimminger about funding.
We must stop minimizing the contribution of women to White Rose resistance, to German resistance, to political thought and deed. History has been skewed in favor of male leaders and thinkers, with the women who often were at the forefront ignored.The letter that Hans Scholl wrote to Professor Dr. Kurt Huber in August 1942 seemed innocuous enough. And indeed, Professor Huber suppressed his doubts and fears because he needed these students to get HIS message out.
But when the arrests took place, Huber unburdened himself in his interrogations. Next to Gisela Schertling and Hans Hirzel, he bore the greatest responsibility for the conviction of many in the White Rose circle of friends.
Know your allies! Doesn’t mean your allies have to agree with you 100% of the time. That is another fallacy. But KNOW YOUR ALLIES. Make sure that your disagreements aren’t going to destroy your work.
Have you ever experienced the concept of “no good deed goes unpunished”? Hans Scholl, Willi Graf, Hubert Furtwängler, and Alexander Schmorell would have thought their beloved professor would have appreciated the letter they wrote him. Instead, it became a weapon used against them after the arrests.
Do you know that feeling? And how do you take precautions to ensure that your coworkers in your battles for social justice are not going to betray you when the chips are down?
White Rose History, Volume II, pages 162-165.
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